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Unearthed Arcana: Psionics and Mystics Take Two
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<blockquote data-quote="TheCosmicKid" data-source="post: 7694436" data-attributes="member: 6683613"><p>As you go on to note, the word "always" is hyperbolic. But more important is the word "if". Yes, <em>fireball</em> is very good at what it does: damage. If your character is a blaster mage this spell should be in his or her arsenal. And I don't see the problem with that. It's the spell for throwing a ball of fire at the enemy, which is what most blaster mages in most media spend most of their time doing. (And what they're doing the rest of the time, throwing bolts of lightning, also deals 8d6 damage.) But <em>not all mages are blaster mages</em>. Sometimes mages want to do things other than raw damage.</p><p></p><p><em>Ice storm</em> is a hybrid spell with a decent crowd-control effect on top of its damage. It doesn't need to "curve" off of <em>fireball</em>; they serve different purposes. (And together, they don't make for a half bad one-two punch.)</p><p></p><p>[hr][/hr]</p><p></p><p>You can call them that if you like.</p><p></p><p>No. You can't make something good or bad by defining the term for it that way. You have to actually demonstrate why it's good or bad. Look at what @<em><strong><u><a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/member.php?u=5143" target="_blank">Majoru Oakheart</a></u></strong></em> is saying. I'm disagreeing with him at points, but he is giving concrete reasons for why he thinks <em>fireball</em> is bad for the game, and that's the correct approach.</p><p></p><p>As for outliers and class design, I've already given my opinion: "every casting class can (and should) have some of what you call 'known outliers' on its spell list to represent the class' relative strengths and weaknesses in different areas of magic."</p><p></p><p>Did you know the original pitch for Magic: The Gathering was "the game where every card breaks the rules"? (I may be paraphrasing a bit.) Is M:tG a badly written game? Over the past couple of decades, game designers have grown increasingly aware that judicious rule-breaking is not just tolerable, but actively <em>beneficial</em> for many games.</p><p></p><p>What if I said that <em>revivify</em> was way ahead of the curve for the cleric, because wizard conjurers can't do anything like it at 3rd level (or any level)?</p><p></p><p>You have yet to establish that <em>fireball</em> is a "mistake".</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="TheCosmicKid, post: 7694436, member: 6683613"] As you go on to note, the word "always" is hyperbolic. But more important is the word "if". Yes, [I]fireball[/I] is very good at what it does: damage. If your character is a blaster mage this spell should be in his or her arsenal. And I don't see the problem with that. It's the spell for throwing a ball of fire at the enemy, which is what most blaster mages in most media spend most of their time doing. (And what they're doing the rest of the time, throwing bolts of lightning, also deals 8d6 damage.) But [I]not all mages are blaster mages[/I]. Sometimes mages want to do things other than raw damage. [I]Ice storm[/I] is a hybrid spell with a decent crowd-control effect on top of its damage. It doesn't need to "curve" off of [I]fireball[/I]; they serve different purposes. (And together, they don't make for a half bad one-two punch.) [hr][/hr] You can call them that if you like. No. You can't make something good or bad by defining the term for it that way. You have to actually demonstrate why it's good or bad. Look at what @[I][B][U][URL="http://www.enworld.org/forum/member.php?u=5143"]Majoru Oakheart[/URL][/U][/B][/I] is saying. I'm disagreeing with him at points, but he is giving concrete reasons for why he thinks [I]fireball[/I] is bad for the game, and that's the correct approach. As for outliers and class design, I've already given my opinion: "every casting class can (and should) have some of what you call 'known outliers' on its spell list to represent the class' relative strengths and weaknesses in different areas of magic." Did you know the original pitch for Magic: The Gathering was "the game where every card breaks the rules"? (I may be paraphrasing a bit.) Is M:tG a badly written game? Over the past couple of decades, game designers have grown increasingly aware that judicious rule-breaking is not just tolerable, but actively [I]beneficial[/I] for many games. What if I said that [I]revivify[/I] was way ahead of the curve for the cleric, because wizard conjurers can't do anything like it at 3rd level (or any level)? You have yet to establish that [I]fireball[/I] is a "mistake". [/QUOTE]
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